The Impact of Social Isolation on Mental Health Stigma and Psychological Well-being of University Students

Background: Social isolation and mental health stigma represent critical challenges in university settings, particularly impacting students’ psychological well-being and help-seeking behaviors. Despite growing recognition of these issues, limited research has examined their interconnected relationships within Indian higher education contexts.
Objective: This cross-sectional study investigated the relationships between social isolation, internalized mental health stigma, psychological well-being, and attitudes toward professional help-seeking among university students.
Methods:A total of 140 students from G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology participated in an online survey conducted between October and December, 2024. Key methodological challenges included ensuring representative sampling across diverse academic disciplines and managing potential social desirability bias in mental health reporting. Validated instruments included the UCLA Loneliness Scale-10, Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness Scale-9, WHO-5 Well-Being Index, and Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale-Short Form. Data were analyzed using correlation and regression analyses.
Results: Social isolation demonstrated significant positive correlation with mental health stigma (r = 0.499, p < 0.001, 95% CI [0.24, 0.43]) and significant negative correlation with psychological well-being (r = -0.469, p < 0.001, 95% CI [-0.61, -0.32]). Regression analyses revealed that social isolation predicted 24.9% of the variance in mental health stigma (β = 0.340, p < 0.001) and 22.1% of variance in psychological well-being (β = -0.461, p < 0.001). Contrary to expectations, no significant relationship emerged between social isolation and help-seeking attitudes (r = 0.006, p = 0.946).
Conclusions:Findings demonstrate that social isolation significantly contributes to internalized mental health stigma and diminished psychological well-being among university students. However, isolated students do not necessarily exhibit reduced willingness to seek professional help, suggesting complex pathways in help-seeking behavior. This study contributes novel insights into the differential impacts of social isolation on various mental health dimensions and provides the first empirical examination of these relationships in Indian university contexts. Universities should implement targeted interventions addressing social connectedness and stigma reduction to enhance student mental health outcomes.